


Strange Happenings

by HipsterTrash421



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 19:03:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20822297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HipsterTrash421/pseuds/HipsterTrash421
Summary: This isn't how Chloe imagined blackmailing Nathan Prescott would go, but how could she be honestly surprised? She knew he was a bit unhinged, but before she could take her last breath, someone from her past saves her, and everything she knows is about to change.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there, I've written this before and posted it on FanFiction.net, but it was suggested I also post, and as an avid reader, I understand why. I know I'm not the best writer, but hey we all gotta start somewhere. Any and all reviews would be appreciated. Hope you enjoy

A gun pushed into my stomach wasn’t how I expected any of this to go. But here I was, all because I thought it was a good idea to blackmail this turd. Stupid!

“You’re gonna end up in hella more trouble for this than drugs - “  
“Nobody would ever even miss your “punk ass” would they?!”  
“Get that gun away from me psycho!”

I shove him and reflectively flinch and close my eyes… but nothing happens, in fact, I can’t even hear anything… I crack open an eye and Prescott is just… standing there, this snarl on his face, but it looks like he’s frozen. What the fuck?

“Not… this… time” I hear someone say with some struggle, I open my eyes completely and look behind him.

“What the fuck…. Max!? What the - how - you - he - what the fuck?!”  
“I’ll explain later…” she gets this look of pain “grab his gun from him, I don’t think I can hold this much longer”

I decide I’ll question this later and take the gun from Prescott, “Now what?” 

“Put the gun on the floor and be ready to punch him in the face and then yell for David”

“Why would I, How do you…. never mind. Don’t need to ask me twice to punch this cockroach”

I raise my fist and prep myself “Ok, whatever you’re gonna do, I’m ready”

Max suddenly slumps into the wall as sound rushes back, and as my fist smashes Prescott's nose causing him to yell and fall over and I scream “DAVID!”

Within seconds, David bursts into the bathroom as I run to Max, I turn “You wanna play cop? That fucker pulled a gun on me and Max here, do something!”

He looks at his feet and sees the gun as Prescott lunges for it, and he kicks him in the chest before he gets the gun and then drops to restrain him. He puts handcuffs on Prescott's wrists as the little roach thrashes around demanding to be let go. David says to me “Chloe, for once do as I say, and just call the Police.” He drags Prescott up while I call. “Oh I’ve been waiting for a chance to get you on something.”

I get off the phone with the police as David drags Prescott from the Bathroom into the now crowded hall I help Max up and follow them, I lean into to whisper to Max “What the fuck is going on Max, how did you do that, a better question is how is it October and this is the first time I even know you’re back?”

She responds weakly “I’ll explain everything, but that took a lot outta me, I’ve only done it once before, I need to rest” she got quieter as she spoke and then just passed out, making me have to lift and carry her. I already hear police sirens outside as Nathan yells become incoherent, struggling hard against David. Two cops come in and help David restrain Prescott as other security guards keep the growing crowd back. One comes up to me.

“Officer Berry, fancy seeing you here, with me not in trouble for once”

“Funny Chloe but let’s leave the jokes for later. We’re going to need to know what happened, and probably have a doctor look at the two of you. You seem awfully calm come to think of it…”

“Yah well, getting a gun shoved into your stomach apparently main lines adrenaline, gimme some time and I’ll be a mess, and poor Max must have been overwhelmed by it all.”

Berry leans into his radio, “Send an ambulance, two students need to be checked out.” He looks at me again, “Come on, we’ll wait outside”

“That roaches gun is still in the bathroom”

Officer Berry turns and tells another cop to grab the gun. The other officer goes into the bathroom and comes out in a minute with the gun in an evidence bag. I can see people eyeing it, some a look of disbelief, _Vortex pricks _, and others with looks that say they’re not surprised. Berry motions for me to follow him, so I do while holding Max bridal style. I only just start to hear people muttering when the school doors close behind me as an ambulance pulls up and two paramedics jump out and put Max on a gurney. I realize something.

“Wait if they’re taking Max to the hospital I’m going with them, I’m not leaving her alone”

Berry looks at me “Obviously, Chloe you need to be looked at too, who knows what you’ll be like when the adrenaline high ends. Get in the ambulance.” I climb in and another paramedic starts looking me over. I suddenly felt myself feel different, which I then realize is the adrenaline high coming down, I don’t remember much as the panic sets in.

Next thing I know I’m waking up with beeping sounds filling my ears. My eyes slowly open as bright whiteness fills them, I close them again and groan when suddenly… 

“Oh! Chloe!” someone grabs me and hugs me tightly. I opened my eyes again and there's Mom, looking so… relieved. “Chloe, oh my…. You’re okay…. You’re ok. Oh thank God.”

“Mom… having trouble breathing” I manage to get out.

She lets go and looks at me. “David came to the Two Whales to tell me what happened and to bring me here, but they wouldn’t let me in because you….” she didn’t finish as she just hugged me again with tears running down her face. A doctor I didn’t notice before spoke up. 

“Ah, Ms. Price, good to see you’re awake. Yes, we couldn’t let your mother in because you started to freak out in the ambulance and well, you had to be sedated so you didn’t hurt yourself or the paramedics. You’ve been asleep for around an hour.”

“Where’s Max?” _I don’t care about me, hows Max? I need answers_

“Ms. Caulfield is also fine, the incident must have overwhelmed her and she lost consciousness but she is awake now and feeling fine. There are also some officers waiting who’d like to ask some questions.” 

“Fine…. Send em in….”

“Alright, Mrs. Madsen, if you follow me, the officers said they’d like to ask in private, but also to assure you nothing is wrong.” I see Officer Berry walk in to add in “Joyce, I personally assure that as of right now, Chloe isn’t in trouble, we just need to know what happened”.

Mom gives him a weary look, but follows the Doctor out. I relax into the bed and think _Well, here we go, Max, you better have a damn good explanation for what happened._


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing I notice is the pounding headache and the bright lights. Then I hear beeping from my right side. When my eyes adjust I see that I’m in the hospital. Then I hear a voice.

“Ah, Ms. Caulfield you’re awake”.

I turn my head and see the doctor standing there. He looks friendly enough.

“First thing I want to say is you’re incredibly lucky that nothing horrible happened. From what I hear you managed to distract Mr. Prescott long enough for your friend to give a real strong sucker punch.”

I tense up a little when I hear him mention Nathan, but hide it well enough that the Doctor doesn’t notice. 

“Lucky for you you’ve only been unconscious for around an hour, and your vitals were normal enough. The stress and fear you felt from the situation must have overwhelmed you. Again, everyone is relieved that nothing serious happened. And Mr. Prescott is in police custody, he’s already confessed to what he did, so no need to worry about him anymore.” 

I relax when I hear that Nathan already confessed. _Seems like in any timeline he confesses at the first chance he gets. I just need to know if he ratted Jefferson out yet._ I realize that the doctor is still talking. 

“- and after a few more precautionary tests you’ll be able to check yourself out. Also Ms. Price came around about a few minutes ago, and currently talking to the police. If you’d like to go see her you’re free to in a few minutes. Her room is just a few down from here, just walk out and head left.”

“I probably should go see her, she had to have been in worse shape than me cause… well, it was her Nathan had a gun pointed at.”

_Dog, that didn’t sound awkward at all._

“I’ll leave you to it then.” I watch as the doctor turns and leaves. 

I lay back into the bed to think._ Dog, the explanation Chloe is going to need after all this. One, I’ll probably have to hear her angry rant about abandoning her again, but after two times hearing it already I know what to say, though it does tear me up everytime, not like I don’t deserve it. Two, I need to explain how I literally stopped time. But, why wasn’t she affected this time, every other time she’s rewound just like everyone else. Something must be different, but what. I have to hope Nathan ratted out Jefferson and what happened with Rachel, I don’t think I can put Chloe through that myself… again._

I groan and drag myself off the bed. Stretching I notice I’m in a hospital robe, and that my clothes are on a chair next to the bed. I change into my jeans and trusty Jane Doe t-shirt. _Amazing that this thing has survived so much. So, out and to the left… here we go again._

I walk out and find the room easy enough, _Dog this is never easy_, and I knock.

“It’s open.”

I open the door and there she is, blue hair, elaborate tattoo, and dog… that jawline. I realize I’m staring when she starts talking. 

“Close the door behind you.”

I do as she asks, like always. 

“Five years gone and you choose one hell of an amazing and confusing way to come into my life. What, the fuck, happened in the bathroom?”

This is new…. Usually she started yelling at me. Better roll with it. 

I clear my throat, “Well, it’s a long story and you may not even believe me when I say it. But what happened was…. Me, stopping time.”

She just looks at me for what must have only been a few seconds but felt like an eternity, those blue eyes of hers just staring into my soul…. _Dog, those eyes_

“If I didn’t see it for myself, I’d say you’re either the worst liar ever or high outta your mind. I want answers, what the fuck?”

“Bear with me on this, I don’t want to stop after I started, it’s hard enough that I need to have this conversation... again. But that wasn’t the first time we were in that bathroom together. The first time it happened, you…. Died. When Nathan shot you after you pushed him away.”

“Fuck off.”  
“What did I say about interrupting?”

“Well fucking sorry for finding it a bit hard to believe that.”

“You saw me stop time for christs sake! How is it that hard to believe that I can control time.”

“Because I live in reality max, and I may have been expelled at 16, but I’m not an idiot, I was a science nerd and know how time works. You can’t control it or stop it.”

“Well maybe ‘stopping’ it isn’t the best word. I’ve found that it’s more like constantly rewinding the same microsecond, so everything looks like it isn’t moving”

“Semantics, I don’t care, you need to explain yourself.”

“Semantics, big word for you, How about I just show you what I can do?”

“Fine.” 

I walk across the room to the opposite side of Chloe and hold out my hand to reach for the now familiar tug and watch as reality warps and I watch my double reverse around to where I was before.

“What the fuck!?”

Chloe’s shout shocks me out of the rewind and I snap my head around to look at her with wide eyes.

“What the fuck was that?!”

_Shit, of course! Why did I think that would work, it didn’t affect her in the bathroom and it doesn’t now._

I manage to get out, “You… you… it doesn’t affect you now. This is new…”

“Whatever the hell you did was some freaky shit. Max, what is going on?”

“Now that I think about it, the hospital isn’t the best place to explain myself, what I have to tell you, is some heavy and twisted shit and we should be alone.”

“As much I want and need to know, you’re probably right. But you’re not getting out of this.”  
“Obviously.”

Half an hour later we were discharged and Chloe drove us to the lighthouse._ Funny, it’s always the lighthouse_. We get out and both head to the top where we sit on the bench. 

Chloe looks at me, “Okay, explain. What happened in the bathroom? How the fuck can you control time?”

I look her in the eyes, and begin to explain everything. Because I didn’t know if Nathan ratted out Jefferson yet, I couldn’t tell her about Rachel because I knew she’d refuse to believe it. I told her everything that happened the first time around, and then the second time around. The fact that I had to do all that again caused Chloe to give me this look, an almost heartbroken look.

By the time I finished, the sun was setting. _Funny, even after everything I’ve done and seeing a massive storm here, I’m always blown away by the beauty of Arcadia Bay_. Chloe slowly turns to look out over the ocean while she pulls out a cigarette and lights it.

“I dared you to kiss me? And you did it? Impressive Caulfield.”

She gives her trademarked smirk and all I can say is “That’s what you ask? After everything I just told you?”

“It’s the only thing that isn’t causing me to question everything I’ve ever known, or freak out entirely.” 

She paused and continued, “Well… what did you think, am I a good kisser?”

I can’t even believe this is what she’s asking, and all it does is cause my face to become very warm all of a sudden. I know this is an intense blush. It’s all she needs to continue talking.

“And there's that embarrassed blush you always got when we were kids. You’re lucky that you’re hella cute.”

_Dog she is bold. What is happening, everytime before she was just as shy as I was when we had this talk. Well maybe because I just told her everything, so she knows she can be like this. But that doesn’t explain why things seem to be different._

“Well Maximus, for your information, I am hella gay. I mean look at me, I’m the textbook definition of ‘soft butch’. And you are cute, even more so than when we were younger. No wonder I dared you to kiss me. Except, thinking about it, I am surprised that you actually did it.”

I feel the blush go down my neck, I must look like tomato. I stutter out “We-well it isn’t like yo-your not re-really…” I swallow the lump in my throat and finish, “hot” I manage to choke out. 

That’s what causes her eyes to widen. “O-oh.”

“Yeah. A-and I may have… rewound it… a few times, ju-just to it again.”

That causes a dumbstruck look to appear on her face. Which is quickly replaced by her devious smirk as she thinks of something. _Oh no._

“Well. Since you evidently got more than one…”

_Here it comes… _

“Max Caulfield, I dare you to ki-”

I don’t let her finish. I throw my arms around her neck and kiss her in a way that should tell her exactly how I feel about her without any words. I can feel her surprise as she tenses up but almost immediately melts into the kiss, wrapping her arms around me to pull me closer. I lean into her and she falls back onto the bench and we continue as the sun continues to sink. We don’t even notice the snow this time.


	3. Chapter 3

The crunch of gravel under the tires told Berry that they really were out in the sticks. But here was the barn Nathan mentioned. It was impressive how quickly he cracked, he cracked and talked about the barn while I was talking with Chloe. Despite everything he’s done, and told the police he’s done, it was hard to not feel sad for him. His father is well… Sean Prescott, and he nevered cared for anyone but himself. And they way he treated Nathan shows in how Nathan acts. It doesn’t excuse what Nathan has done, but he was a victim of circumstance; he never had a chance. The purr of the engine died as the reached the barn door. It really is amazing how quickly a warrant to search can be issued, they snapped the lock off the door and entered, pistols ready.

Office Lopez motioned toward the floor covered in straw. “So Nathan said a trap door was located here, under the upper level with a hay hook hanging over”. He used his boot to move the straw around and exposed a brand new looking lock.

I looked at Lopez and he at me as we motioned for the others. We used to bolt cutters on this one and heaved to door open, exposing the stairs leading down. I took point and went to the door and punched in the code Nathan provided, 542. The lighted blinked green and the door opened easily. We had no idea what could be down here, Nathan would say. We proceeded and stopped in shock. We had rounded the corner and found…. A photography studio. An empty one at that. 

I walked forward and took it all in. Now I don’t much about photography, but a lot of this equipment looks expensive, like Prescott expensive. I notice a wall full of binders, I walk over and pull one out, it has to name ‘Alexis” on it. _Weird place to store model shots_. Though I open it and immediately horrified. I came to Arcadia Bay after working in Seattle in the drug crimes department, so I know what someone who’s completely out of it looks like, and this girl has every sign of being drugged. I drop it shock and look at the other binders. _They can’t all be like this… who would be that sick_? My eyes follow down until I see the bottom ones; marked Rachel, Kate, Max, and Victoria. _No… please no._

I slowly pull out ‘Rachel’ and open it. I feel my stomach drop from under me. It’s Rachel Amber alright, completely out of it in some, and looking well aware in others. I flip through and it’s more of the same, until I reach the end, and theres photos of her in what looks to be a hole in the ground, but something is different. There's no life in her eyes; I realize that she’s dead in this photo, and I nearly lose my breakfast. It isn’t something I haven’t seen before, but every other time it wasn’t people that I had known. I can’t look at these anymore. I put in the desk and try to process all of this. I realize there isn’t anyway Nathan had been doing this on his own, there has to be someone else. I realize the desk is covered in papers. I pick one up and start reading; it’s a printed email…. From Sean Prescott to… _no, it can’t be, oh my god_… to Mark Jefferson. It’s about confirmed whether the equipment has arrived for his studio. _Mark Jefferson's studio_… I look at the wall of binders and feel both sickness and rage growing in me. “Guys, you better look at this, it’s so much worse than we thought.” 

Lopez comes over and notices the photos and reads the email, his face contorting as he realizes as well. He just looks at me. “Let's find everything we can right now, we need everything we can get.”

We spend the next hour searching around and gathering evidence. Smith and Rowens went back to the station to get evidence bags and boxes as well as call in CSI for a more comprehensive search of the bunker. We’ve packed all the binders up and found one marked ‘Chloe’ but it was a different color and different style of photos, even if they were almost the same; a cold rage swept through me when I realized this was definitely Nathan's work. I’d seen some of it before, and this was his style, evidently modeled after Jeffersons. Then I realized something, we don’t know if Jefferson knows we’re here or onto him. I left CSI to keep working and went outside to place a call to the DA’s office.

The phone rang a few times before it was answered.

“Hello, District Attorney Joyce's office”

“Hi Sherie, Anderson Berry, Arcadia Bay Police Department. I need the DA to write up an arrest warrant, think you can put me through to him?”

“Give me one second, you’re lucky he isn’t busy right now”

“Mmm”

The phone beeps and I head Alex Joyces voice, after the scandal a few years ago with James Amber, the state felt it necessary to replace our District Attorney.

“Hello Anderson, how can I help you?”

“Hi Alex, I need an arrest Warrant written up for Mark Jefferson, think it you can get one from a judge, by about 10 tonight at the latest?”

“Mark Jefferson, the photography teacher at Blackwell? What happened?

“I take it you’ve heard what happened at Blackwell today? Nathan Prescott had a gun a nearly killed two people there today, he broke and told us to go to a barn and we found something we didn’t expect, and it was there that we found that it is so much bigger than Nathan with a gun. And Jefferson is involved, hell he could be the mastermind behind it. We’ve already gathered up a lot of evidence, we just need to warrant”.

“Alright, I’ll get it to you by 10. Judge Hoida should be able to give us one.”

“Thank you”. I hang up and take a deep breath of the night air. Despite everything that happened today, at least the setting sun over the forest is still beautiful. But then, it started snowing, in 80 degree weather. “What the fuck….” I muttered. Just one more shock to add today. “Like just keeps getting stranger…”


End file.
